1828 -- Arnold began attending Rugby, where he was a intelligent but less than dedicated student. Still, he eventually won a scholarship to Oxford.

1833 -- Family begins vacationing in the Lake District, where they make friends with William and Dorothy Wordsworth.

1844 -- Graduated from Balliol with a second. While at Oxford he had continued his lackadaisical ways by not attending chapel or following the required curriculum. However, he read widely and seriously

1844-1855 -- During these six years, Arnold wrote four volumes of poetry. For the most part, these are the works upon which his reputation as a poet rests. All of these poems are dominated by what has come to be known as the Victorian sensibility. They lament the loss of deep feeling and an authentic inner and spiritual life. During this period, he marries (1851) and becomes chief inspector of schools.

1857 -- Appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford and begins writing literary criticism in works such as On Translating Homer (1861)  and Essays in Criticism (1867)